We are starting the celebration of Rosh Hashanah – start
of the spiritual New Year.

We all know that on January 1st,
we will be ringing in the New Year, tossing out personal goals that we may or
may not follow through on and hanging up new calendars to tick off the days of
the year.That date has a significant
physical aspect and is celebrated very much in the public’s eye.By contrast, Rosh Hashanah is primarily spent
in religious services.As part of the liturgy,
we liken this season to opening up the book of life on Rosh Hashanah, atone for
our sins, then on Yom Kippur, the book is sealed with our fate for the upcoming
year (“…who shall live and who shall die…”).That is some serious stuff, and that is why for the one time of the year,
more Jews go to services than any other time of the year. This New Year’s holiday
is not celebrated the same as the one where we change our calendars.

Napoleon Hill, in his book “Think
and Grow Rich”, spends time talking about the importance of faith in the 500+
successful people he interviewed before he wrote the book.He does not, in particular, prescribe following
any one religion, but instead refers to an Infinite Intelligence and as the
reader, you can interpret as you wish.His point is that success has a component of faith, or simply put, a
spiritual aspect.Affirmations and
meditation, along with prayer, are ways to tap into this higher, cosmic
power.There are many religious beliefs
that teach, via meditation, you can reach into yourself to find this
source.Eckhart Toll, Rabbi Aryeh
Kaplan, and many other spiritual leaders and writers, while belonging to
organized religions, believed in this approach to spirituality flavored by the
faiths they follow.

Rosh Hashanah, for me, is a
chance to seek some spiritual renewal, to reach inside myself, to meditate and
to pray.We tend to the outside of our
bodies, maintaining our appearances and working towards making our outer shell
last for as long as possible.This is
the time of year to focus on what is inside.Just like the outside, we should tend to our insides every day and live
our lives with more internal reflection and a sense of spirituality.Maybe, that is the lesson I will take away
this holiday season.

For all those celebrating Rosh
Hashanah – May you be inscribed in the book of life and have a happy, healthy
and prosperous New Year.